Pentax Compact Comes With Extra Shutter Release

With cellphones chasing regular compact cameras down so hard, the camera makers have to do something to fight back. Polaroid is putting the Android operating system on its new Smart Camera. What's Pentax doing?

Sprinkling extra shutter buttons over its camera, that's what. The new Optio VS20 is an otherwise humdrum 16MP compact that has an extra shutter release grafted onto the bottom of the right end of the body as you hold it. Thus, you can more easily shoot in a portrait orientation without twisting your wrist. It's a feature normally only found on the highest-end SLRs, or smaller SLRs with a battery grip attached.

Other than the extra button, which is infinity-times-two more buttons than most cellphones have, the Optio VS20 has a 20x optical zoom, a three-inch, 460,000-dot display, sensor-shift image stabilizer, a second zoom collar around the second shutter button and a tripod mount in the short end for vertical pictures.

Nothing crazy exciting, but a solid set of features to be sure. The price is right, too: $250, available next month.